Psychedelia and theoretical philosophy and metaphysics, oh my. Early buzz around Sturgill Simpson’s sophomore release Metamodern Sounds in Country Music threw up a red flag or two for many fans of the Kentucky singer-songwriter. His June 2013 debut disc High Top Mountain was a modern traditionalist’s dream, spinning together enough pedal steel, coal mine memories and mainstream country cynicism […]

Beauty Is…, Ray Price’s beautiful new album, was recorded only a few months before he died—and in the weeks just following his learning definitively that he was going to. When the project was completed, the singer told Janie Price, his wife of more than forty years, that he had made it especially for her. As […]

Irene Kelley lives up to her reputation as a stellar artist and songwriter with her latest, the rootsy, grassy Pennsylvania Coal. Quality should be no surprise, since Kelley has been in demand on Music Row for decades for her sweet, pure sound and sought-after writing skills, with cuts by artists including Carl Jackson, Ricky Skaggs, […]

Rodney Crowell’s newest record was four years in the making: after recording half a dozen songs in 2010, he got distracted by two stellar side projects: Kin, a collection of songs written with noted author Mary Karr, and last year’s Grammy-winning Old Yellow Moon, a duets record with Emmylou Harris. But Tarpaper Sky, the best […]

For such a seemingly mellow man, John Denver was a rather polarizing artist. For every person — and there were millions — who was drawn to his lite-folk records and (occasionally hokey) lyrics celebrating the beauty of nature, there was a Charlie Rich. Denver’s music is experiencing a bit of a revival, thanks in part […]

When Loretta Lynn cut the records that transformed her into a first-rank country star, she was still touring as the featured “girl singer” for brother team Teddy and Doyle Wilburn. By late 1966, though, her back-to-back grown-woman hits “You Ain’t Woman Enough” and “Don’t Come Home a-Drinkin’ (with Lovin’ on Your Mind)” put her in […]

Rhonda Vincent knows her way around a song, whether it’s a slow country shuffle drenched in steel guitars or a skittering bluegrass tune propelled by fiddles. A singer’s singer, her voice is the gold standard in bluegrass and country music, and on this new double album, Vincent not only demonstrates her vocal depth and breadth […]

Meet the new Susan Cattaneo, moved by personal trauma and steadfast in artistic vision. A couple years ago, Cattaneo found herself performing CPR on a woman who fainted and fell down the stairs in her Boston home. She heard police say the woman would not survive the injuries to her head and neck. As it […]

Mandy Barnett’s decision to record an album of Don Gibson songs wasn’t necessarily her idea. It was something that the Hall of Fame songwriter himself suggested, as the two struck up a friendship in the last years of Gibson’s life. However the project came about, listeners should be glad that it happened, as I Can’t […]

The tree is trimmed, the stockings are hung, and Black Friday shoppers have successfully reenacted a trashier version of Gladiator. What else is there to do this holiday season but crank up the stereo? Here are a few albums we’ve been enjoying lately. Mindy Smith – Snowed In Mindy Smith’s new five-song EP (three classics, two […]